Feminism, From Ben!

Since all the feminist stuff that gets posted on this ol' blog here usually gets posted by my esteemed co-blogger, I thought it might be fun for me to do one. Anyway, I'll just do some highlights:

1. "[Cancer] is an apt metaphor for radical feminism, which seduces intelligent, caring young women; plies them with warmed-over Marxist slogans; and turns them into gender crusaders who seemingly have lost all semblance of reason and compassion."

Well, we're getting off to a pretty good start here! He starts off well enough, admitting that intelligent and caring women are more likely to embrace the tenets of feminism and become gender crusaders while idiotic and uncaring women are, sadly, more likely to be brainwashed by backward cro-mag philosophies.

2. "By its own admission, radical feminism seeks to curtail or destroy the most cherished values of democratic free market societies: the traditional family, limited government, and the culture of life itself."

I think at this point my lack of knowledge might be a hinderance to my project. While I know a bit here and there about feminism, he seems much more of an expert in "radical feminism" which sounds dreadfully violent and scary to me. Why, they're so hateful that these "radical feminists" are willing to bring about their own end by completely ending procreation! That's pretty hardcore. Of course, the vanilla brand of feminism that I'm more familiar with is more concerned with equal wages and giving women options in various areas of their lives in which they had none, but then that's not very radical. Or tubular even.

3. "The Academy. Women's studies programs serve as the base camp for feminists to recruit a new crop of well-educated women... The cure? Students need to file lawsuits demanding that these universities establish men's studies programs to serve the dwindling male student body. After all, Title IX of the Civil Rights Act was intended to benefit men and women alike."

I think this guy likes feminism more than he thinks, unless he's saying that being well-educated is a bad thing. Also, as a man that attended a university with a 60:40 female to male ratio I'd say that I benefitted plenty from schools reaching out to women. You're saying you want to bring in more dudes? Are you quite mad?!

4. "The Media. Our feminized society is seemingly addicted to stories that serve up a daily diet of victimization and gender grievance. Recently I came across this 72-point headline in USA Today: "Abuse Found in Military Schools." The article goes on to recite this shocking statistic: "The report cited 2004 Pentagon data showing 50% of women at all three academies were harassed, mostly verbally but dozens suffering physical abuse." [ed: Then he posits several questions about the Pentagon report that the article doesn't answer.]And come to think of it, how many male cadets experienced any form of abuse? The answer to these important questions is left to the reader's imagination.

This is like wondering why Highlights Magazine doesn't explain the complex series of events that led to so many objects being lost in the forrest. USA Today isn't a feminist publication, it's a crappy publication. And to answer his questions, I went to the Air Force Academy Gazette, where I learned that more men than women were surveyed and yet women reported verbal and physical abuse (mostly from other cadets and midshipmen) almost five times more than the men. Evidently abuse is on the decline, but still, it's not so much a question of the "MSM" (mainstream media for those of you that don't think it's fun to cruise conservative sites) making things up as it is one of subpar reporting. But really, if he expected different from USA Today, there's something wrong with him.

Hat tip: Pandagon